


Girl of Fire

by Mersheeple



Series: Hearts&Cauldrons Prompts [33]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Elemental Magic, F/M, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Post-War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:14:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25431439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mersheeple/pseuds/Mersheeple
Summary: She was a freak. And now everyone would know it. She had been trying to hide it for so long...
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Series: Hearts&Cauldrons Prompts [33]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805746
Comments: 15
Kudos: 72





	Girl of Fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Corina (CorinaLannister)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorinaLannister/gifts).



> Happy (Belated) Birthday Corina!
> 
> Also...I know that your prompt was the song Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys and I SWEAR that is what I was intending for this to be based on but...between my brain and my fingers something weird happened...so this is the START (yep, it is definitely going to have further chapters) of a fic that will be entirely yours...

The world around her was on fire, burning and breaking apart, spitting hatred and fireballs and pain at her. She felt the prod of a wand at her back and the first spasms of pain hit her again, splitting her skin open as she writhed in pain. Her mouth opened in a wordless, soundless scream and she felt the marble floor of Malfoy Mansion under her head.

“Hermione? Hermione! It’s ok, it’s ok, you’re ok, you’re safe…sweetheart, the war is over…” The voice was strangely calming, in spite of the volume and the person it was coming from. She turned her head to catch the eye of the person in the other bed in the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts and she sighed softly. The burning feeling on her skin was finally abating and she knew that she would be ok.

“I’m sorry I woke you Severus. What happened this time?” She moved to sit up, her back popping and cracking, and then she felt the wet patch on her arm.

“Bloody fucking Bellatrix fucking Lestrange!” Her mouth always ran away with her in the dark hours of the night and she heard Severus chuckle.

“Your mouth is awful Miss Granger.” Hermione turned to him and stuck her tongue out, knowing that he probably couldn’t see her and she couldn’t be reprimanded. Not that he could reprimand her at the moment. Hogwarts was closed. She and Severus were in the Hospital Wing, the worst affected by the curses at the end of the War. The school would re-open after the Summer Holidays and she would go back to being ‘Miss Granger’ full time and, hopefully, he would be well enough to be ‘Professor Snape’, though she loved the ability to call him ‘Severus’.

“It felt appropriate. The scar has opened again. I am so sick of this bloody word!” Her throat closed and she closed her eyes in defeat. She would not cry, she would not. Not in front of him. Not again. It made them both uncomfortable. She wanted hugs when she was crying and he…wanted her as far away from him as possible.

“That word has ruined more than one life, Hermione. But it is just a word. It means nothing. Less than nothing. Unless you let it. Like I did.” She heard the regret in his voice and couldn’t stop herself from moving out of her bed and padding across the gap towards him. She perched on his bed and he sucked in a breath.

“It won’t ruin my life Severus. Don’t let it ruin yours anymore.” She reached a hand out towards his face, meaning to trace her fingers over his face as she had done more than once. He yelped in pain as she jabbed him in the eye.

“Buggering hell Hermione!” She pulled away swiftly, her face burning with embarrassment and humiliation, desperately wanting the ground to open and swallow her up. She felt warm suddenly and her vision sparked and glowed and she swore under her breath. This was something she had hoped she had grown out of. It hadn’t happened since the day she had got her wand. She tried to push the feeling down as she heard the pressure change in the room. Her ears popped and she cursed.

She stepped further away from where Severus was on the bed, trying to make her way back to her own bed before it happened, before she gave away her secret to him. She did not want anyone to know that she was a freak.

“Hermione? Hermione, can you hear me?” Severus was calling to her now and she could see him. She could see him trying to get off of the bed, trying to walk towards her. With a screech and a thrust of power, she pushed him behind a powerful shield, pinning him against his bed as she ran to the far side of the Hospital Wing, desperately trying to get away from him so she could protect him from her freakish ways.

She saw a movement to her left and, knowing it was the Matron, she pushed her back to pin her away and keep Poppy safe. Poppy, who was so much help to her, who liked her, who had even suggested she could stay in the Hospital Wing after the beginning of term. Hermione cringed as the feelings continued to overwhelm her and the shaking began. It had always been this way.

“Hermione…Hermione come back to us…you’re not in trouble…come back…” She could vaguely hear Poppy’s voice through the roaring in her ears but she knew it was all lies. She would be in trouble. People would know she was a freak. People would be scared of her. She tried to pull her magic back in but she was trembling so badly that she couldn’t do it. The scar on her arm was burning, twisting with the memories of when she had been hurt, when she had been attacked, when she had been called a freak as a child, all the times she had hurt people in the past. All the times she had hurt _him_ in the past.

“Miss Granger, unhand me at once!” Professor Snape broke through her worrying and she immediately sucked in a breath, dispelling all the shields she had up and regaining control of her magic, the flames licking across her skin as they dissipated and faded away. She curled into a ball against the wall. Oh, he was angry, he was so very angry with her.

“Hermione, what happened there?” He was kneeling in front of her, his wand on the ground in front of him in a gesture of trust so significant that she almost burst into tears of relief. He wasn’t angry. He was worried.

“I’ve seen this before, Severus. I need to have a word with Miss Granger. Give us a moment, please.” Hearing the stoic Matron say please must have invoked the correct emotion in Severus as he moved back to his bed, lightly holding his wand pointed at the floor. Hermione knew, logically, that he could get into a battle ready pose in less than five seconds but the nonchalance with which he held his wand now showed her exactly how much he trusted her not to curse him while his back was turned. She turned to Poppy but kept half an eye on Severus just in case he needed her. Or wanted to interrupt their conversation…which she would happily allow.

“Hermione? Can you focus on me a minute my girl? How long have you been having these episodes?” Poppy Pomfrey was looking at her closely and she noticed that the woman was not scared or awkward around her at all.

“Umm… I think I had my first episode at the age of two. My parents…my parents told me once that I had been screaming for about ten minutes and they had started letting me cry it out. Suddenly I went completely silent but they felt like their ears had popped, like the pressure in the room had dropped and they came to look in on me. They found me covered in blue flames. My mother says she tried to get into my room but she couldn’t. My Dad never tried. He just screamed at me and at my mother. They never tried to let me self-soothe again.” Hermione looked at Poppy again and saw the Matron was nodding calmly at her.

“That would be about right. That’s about when people start to show their magic. But it never…went away?” Hermione shook her head and Poppy frowned. It was Severus who spoke next however and Hermione’s head whipped round to look at him as if she had forgotten he was there.

“Most people find that by directing their magic with a wand they stop having the outbursts of wild magic. Unless it is someone who is incredibly strong. Or someone who has learned how to Occlude completely.” Severus stood and smiled softly, closing his eyes as he placed his wand out of reach on the bed. She watched as his shoulders relaxed and his whole body seemed to flow with a strange power. He stepped forward and held out a hand to her. In a moment, a single flower appeared in his palm. She smiled at him as he opened his eyes and then she noticed the twinkle there as he smirked at her.

The flower grew vines which entwined over his arms and chest, twisting around his legs as flowers and leaves grew in various places. The vines crawled towards her, seeming almost sentient as they wrapped over her legs to stop in front of her face and beginning to cover her lap in a multitude of colourful flowers.

“It’s called Elemental Magic Hermione. My magic is fed by Earth. Yours is fed by Fire. It is incredibly rare to be able to manipulate the Elements. But for those of us that can, they are fed mostly by emotions. I can teach you how to control it but you will have to spend time with me in private to learn fully. It will mean taking on an extra class during your final year here.” He paused and took a breath and she watched as the vines retracted, crawling back to his hands, and vanishing completely when they touched his skin. The flowers he had created stayed in her lap and she lifted one up to her face, bending down to smell it. Unlike real flowers, it smelt uniquely of him, of his magic, of the Earth. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, blushing slightly when he coughed quietly.

“What do you say Hermione? Would you like to spend time learning new magic under me?” Her eyes flicked to him and she realised he had no idea what he had said. She blushed brightly and smiled at him. She noticed the moment he realised what he had said and how it could be misconstrued as his eyes widened slightly and his cheeks slashed pink for a moment before he dropped a flower on the floor silently. She smiled at him and nodded happily.

“I will be sure to have it added to your timetable…unless you already know a time when you will be free?” She shook her head, still smiling at him and was surprised when he smiled back, nodding before returning to his bed. She stood from her position against the wall and smiled at him, her hand opening at her side. She created a tiny blue flame in her hand and, silently, sent it floating towards him, letting it hover harmlessly in front of his face as she returned to her bed. He snorted a soft laugh and then looked at her for a moment.

“Is that a confession Miss Granger? The last time I saw those blue flames they were attached to my best cloak in your first year…” She said nothing as she giggled from the bed, rolling onto her side and smiling as she drifted off to sleep.


End file.
